Building brick



B. F. WEBER.

BUILDING BRICK.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 23, 1919. RENEWED MAY 29,1922.

Patented Aug. 8, 1922;

bricks; the reduced expense of 'freighting I UNITED s rArssf PATENTOFFICE."

. BERNARD E. WEBER, or: CHICAGO, ILLirNoIs.

: BUILDING BRICK.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, BERNAR F. \VEBER, acitizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in'the county of Cookand-State of Illinois, have invented a cert'ainnewand usefulImprovementin Building Bricks, of

which the following'is'a full, 'clear,concise, and exact description,reference-being had ,to the accompanying drawings, forming a part ofthis'specification. I q, I

My invention relates to building bricks.

1 More specifically, my inventioniembodies f method- By making thebricks of hollow" formation, they can be'rnade considerably larger thanthe ordinary solidbricks without involving excessive weight or reducingthe facility with which they can be'handled. The larger volumejof thehollow bricks enables the bricklayer to lay-a given area of *of'awall'erected from my improved-system wall much more rapidlythan with"the smaller size solid'brick. The rapidity with which a brick structurecanbe erected; and

the labor expense -involved, "arepotent factors in the competitiveusesof brick and concrete. 30

Another advantage resides in the reduced weight of the wall structure'asawhole, when constructedof these "enlarged hollow bricks.

Other advantages are; the imperviousness of the wall to moisture andtemperature 5 due to the bodies/ofairentrapped in the hollow andhandlingthe hollow bricks; and the saving infu'el and timein burning and'dryhollow bricks. 7

i I am aware that the idea of building with large hollow-brickshasbeenheretofore proposed,' but these attempts have been I for the mostpart limited to the foundations of buildings, low wall construction,andthe at tempts at combining claybricks of ordinary standard type witha hollow brick have not beenentirely successful in large wall areas;

dueto inability to bonda wall structure emb'odying two 'kindsof bricks,and to the difiiculty of finishing theends, corners, door fsbecmanon(if-Letters Patent.

Figure 3 is a similar view Patented Aug. 8,1922.

' Application filed 11111623, 1919, Serial No. 396,086. Renewed Ma 29,1922 Serial No. 564,622.

system comprlses two brick units-a hollow stretcher brick and ahollow-header brick.

Both brick units have their hollow cavities arranged in such a manner asto entirely seal the air'spaces in the completed wall. The wall or otherstructure is built up mainly with the hollow stretcher type of brick,the

for bonding the structure, closing the corners, etc a r r "In theaccompanying drawing I have illustrated a preferred embodiment of myinvention for explicitly illustrating the practice thereof.

-.F1gure 1 1s a fragmentary. isometric view of bricks;

F gure 2 is an enlarged isometricv1ewof= my iniproved hollow stretcherbrick; and

of my improved hollow header brick. f

Pursuant to the primary object of my invention I construct the stretcherbrick and the header brick 5 considerablylarger than the ordinary solidbricks preferably the size of two ordinary bricks, viz: 8" 5"XS". Itis,-of course, within the purview of my 1nvention to. construct thesebricks the size of several ordinary bricks if desired, but I find thatwhen constructed this large they be come cumbersome and are difiicult tohandle with the dexterity required for rapid laying.

The bricks are pr'eferably though not necessaril v-composed of clay.fired as in ordinary brick practicepand I intend the appended claims toinclude cement,-. or any other suitable material.

The stretcher brick 4: is formed with two rectangular air channels 6extending longitudinally through the length of the:brick and 'hollow header type 'of-brick being employed Webs 7 will be vertically alignedthroughout the entire tier, thereby forming a practically continuoussupporting column extending down through the series of bricks.

The header brick 5 is formed with the four rectangular air channels 8extending downward through the vertical dimension of the brick, whichcorresponds to the "5 dimension as above outlined. These channels areseparated by the longitudinal and transverse webs 9 and 10. It will benoted that in the header type of brick the walls of the air channelsbear practically no bending strain, and in the stretcher type of bricksthe bending strain is veryslight for the reason that the channels have averyshort horizontal span. a

In Figure 1 I have shown an exemplary wall construction for the sake ofexplicitly illustrating the cooperative relation between the two typesof bricks, it being understood that the two types of bricksare capableof varied relation in different brick structures other than that hereinshown. The wall structure is built up primarily-of courses of stretcherbricks 4 which are laid in parallel tiers with the joints lapping asincustomary practice. The courses and't'iers are cemented together bythe mortar or othercement indicated at 12/ The stretcher bricks 4i arelaid horizontally, end to end, with the air channels 6 co-eXtensive andforming long horizontal air chambers in the walls of the building. Fromthe fact that? these air chambers lie horizontal, practically no thermalcirculation is created and consequently these air chambers constitutevery effective heat insulating means. The stretcher bricks 4 are laid onthe narrow faces with the3g" dimension lying horizontal to the tier sothat the two tiers, together with the intervening layer of mortar 12form a wall of substantially 8 thickness, or the length of one of theheader bricks 5.

The bonding of the wall is accomplished by the use; of the header bricks5, which may be arranged in any preferred style or pattern of bond. InFigure '1, I have shown what is termed a full header common bondconsisting of a course of full headers 5 for every six or seven coursesof stretchers .4,

These header bricks are laid transversely to the courses of stretcherbricks and are preferably spaced so as to place a header brick exactlyover the joint of'the' two stretcher bricks below. The header bricks 5are ailso'laid on their narrow faces with the air channels 8 extendingvertically, these air channels being, (if-course. blocked by'the coursesof stretcherbricks above and below and consequently the verticalcirculation is negligible;

The above describedtype of bond is one of themost. prevalent in ordinarylaying practice, and has a particular advantage with the present type ofhollow bricks. This advantage follows from the fact that in this patternof bond the bonding is accomplished by the continuous use of but onetype of brick and hence no time is lost in selecting the bricks. It willbe apparent, however, that the header bricks 5 are capable of bonding awall structure according to any preferred bonding pattern if desired.

Corners, and other angular formations may be finished by the use of theheader bricks 5, which are so arranged with-respect to thebody of thewall. as to etfectuallyclose the ends of the air channels in thestretcher courses and present asmooth exterior surface. In. closing thecorner of twointersecting walls, such as shown in Figure 1, the closerbrickat the end of each stretcher course onthe outer face tier issubstituted by a hollow header brick 5. The stretcher coursesusuallyoverlap at the corner of the wall and consequently the series ofheader bricks 5 overlap at'their ends in the form of a single tier ofangularly disposed overlapping headers. ItWill be apparent that theseheader bricks eifectually'seal the ends of the air chambersin'the'stretcher courses and present a smooth exterior surface.

In situations where smaller bricks are required, such -as to fill inaround a window frame 14, it is entirely practicable to use ordinarysolid bricks 15, as illustratedto the left in Figure'1.,'As I havepreviously remarked, the hollow bricks 4. and -5are substantially twiceas high as an ordinary solid brick and consequently the two types ofhollow and solid bricks have a desirable interchangeable relation; 1 I

In the appended claims wherein I refer to header bricks it is to beunderstood that each header brick having two transverse webs extendingfrom side to -slde.

2., A composite wall or the like comprisfaces, each stretcher brickhavingi web extending longituc'linally therethrough and mg coursesof=hol-loiw stretcher bricks with '-corner hollow header bricks allsubstantially the same size and standard bricks for window or doorsupports *and the like, binder courses 'of header bricks,'each headerand stretcher :bri'ck presenting four plane, surfaces, each stretcher brck having an opening extending longitudinally therethrough same size andhaving four plane sides, each and each header brick having a transversestretcher brick having a web extending lon- 10 web extending from sideto side. I gitudinally therethrough and each header 3. A composite Wallor the like comprisbrick having transverse Webs extending ing doublecourses of hollow stretcher bricks from side to side. with double cornerhollow header bricks and In witness whereof I hereunto subscribe bindercourses of header bricks,,each header my name this 18th day of June,1919. and stretcher brick being approximately. the BERNARD F. WEBER.

